Orbis Unum
by Hawki
Summary: The scars of the Second Tiberium War were felt long after the conflict actually ended. Africa was one such case study, abandoned to both Nod and tiberium. And some among GDI could not help but ask why...
1. Egypt

_When you're finally up on the moon, looking back at the Earth, all those differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and you're going to get a concept that maybe this really is _one world _and why the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people?_

Frank Berman

* * *

**Orbis Unum**

**Section 1: Egypt**

_**W3N Weekly**_

_**Author: William Frank**_

_**Part 1-published June 16, 2035**_

There are no borders these days. There were once, back when the world was divided into nation-states, when the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod weren't the only powers in this world. One day there may be borders again, given rumors of GDI planning to divide the world into areas based on the level of tiberium contamination. But right now, at this point in time, there are no boarders. Or at least, that was what I thought in Africa.

During the Second Tiberium War, a GDI airman once commented that flying over Africa, all one can see is miles of nothing. To be frank, I think the most can be said for many places on this planet-barren wastelands, rendered lifeless due to the spread of tiberium, where only the hardiest and/or most desperate reside. But this was a delusion on the continent. Invisible boundaries exist along the east coast of Africa-with the Brotherhood of Nod fractured, the area has become rife with different war bands. Some are merely in it for their own survival, not necessarily antagonistic to GDI, but not friends either. Others claim to follow the word of Kane, either ignoring or disputing the fact that there are dozens of similar factions who appear to do the same. Either way, it was in Western Egypt that I discovered the nature of this factionalism. Once, the country (in name only of course) was a stronghold of Nod, mainly due to their control of Cairo. Now…well, the gunmen who pulled our group to a stop told a different story.

I can't name the truck that pulled up to greet ours. It was an antique, dating back to even before the First Tiberium War. My translator told me to stay in the car as he got out to meet them, clad in a strange mix of turbans and Nod body armor. I don't know what he said, but it mattered little. I was in a realm where the divide between combatants and non-combatants meant as little as to whether you had a passport or not. And considering that no-one in this part of the world was left to administer immigration and emigration, that meant my status as a journalist meant nothing.

It was strange. There was a refugee camp a few miles to the east-I would have thought that there would have been some level of interaction (violence) between this group and the refugees residing there-those who had fled the fighting in Egypt as the war drew to a close and more recently, the cyborg armies utilized by CABAL. Egypt didn't look set to remain in GDI hands, especially if the rumors of dividing the world in accordance with tiberium contamination turned out to be accurate. The situation in this part of the continent was indicative of the rest of it. In the last century, wars had been fought over access to land, water and tribal identity-the legacy of the imperial era that the Brotherhood exploited to its advantage. If Kane was…Cain, then GDI was Abel and despite what the Bible said, it would take more than one of them to be swept out of the land. Yet the continent was dying. It would be left to the war bands and mutants that roamed it. So it puzzled me as to why this group was being so restrained in its activities.

Thousands of years ago, a tribe's strength could be measured in the number of cows they herded. Now, it could be measured by the size of their armory.

The camp we were herded into was a place in the Libyan Desert-as in, an actual desert rather than a wasteland. It instantly struck me how…normal, it was. Granted, there was a piss load of guns, tanks and pretty much every piece of GDI and Nod hardware under the sun, but there were also many women and children there. Historically, it wasn't much of a surprise. The Brotherhood was a cohesive fighting force in retrospect-a shadow nation with a rule of law, however barbaric it would seem by our standards. If not for their mad quest to accelerate the spread of tiberium, I think it would have been within my right to say that their presence in north-east Africa would have benefitted the area. But that was then. While hostilities between GDI and Nod lasted until at least 2034, most had accepted that the Second Tiberium War ended in 229, with Kane's death in Kenya. As always, there were rumors to the contrary, that the self-proclaimed Messiah perished in Cairo and that it was far more than a simple base raid. Regardless, the Brotherhood was fragmented. So people had to band together, lest women be raped and burned and children be turned into conscripts.

As I said, hostilities had come to an end in 2034. So it was therefore a surprise that I was only in the camp for three days, before a Steel Talons force ploughed into the area. It wasn't for me or my translator-no, it was simply a "clean-up." I have to ask, what of? The unit was pretty pissed, I could tell that much, what with the death of General Joshua Mitchell in the liquid tiberium accident last year that recently turned central Australia from desert to wasteland. But even if that was a Brotherhood operation, these people weren't aligned. So why bother?

I don't know. To my knowledge, they were just trying to survive. So were elements of GDI's military that had been put to shame in recent actions and their use of antiquated technology. Social Darwinism at its finest. The stronger force pushed the weaker out.

* * *

_**InOps Analysis**_

_**Source: Classified**_

_The publication is typical of rumors that have been spreading through the civilian population in recent months, though I feel it nonetheless presents some data of interest. Firstly, it confirms that Africa is indeed headed for a power vacuum-politically unstable even prior to the First Tiberium War, courtesy of the Brotherhood of Nod, this publication demonstrates how quick a descent into chaos its northern states are making. I respectfully advise that we reconsider our standing in northern Africa-the events of last year are testimony to the fact that the Brotherhood of Nod is still a force to be reckoned with. Although Kane is dead, all indications point to a reunification within their ranks-a reunification that the loss of Marcion has not helped. Regardless, any notion of Kane's downfall being anywhere else but Kenya should be actively discouraged. The Tacitus and Kane's intended use of the tiberium missile are to remain confidential for the foreseeable future._

_It is also worth considering Frank's highlighting of the situation in Australia. We already have enough editorials clogging every damn newspaper from Sydney to Melbourne, but Frank's mention of dissent among the Steel Talons offers a new angle, especially when the official line remains that the liquid tiberium accident in Central Australia was indeed an accident. As the likes of New Zealand and Indonesia are being stretched to breaking point in the continuing refugee crisis, I believe the situation will get worse before it gets better._

_And by the way, what does "Orbis Unum" even mean?_


	2. Niger

_Just as the circle embraces all that is within it, so does the Godhead embrace all. No one has the power __to__ divide this circle, or surpass it, or to limit it._

Hildegard of Bingen

* * *

**Orbis Unum**

**Section 2: Niger**

_**W3N Weekly**_

_**Author: William Frank**_

_**Part 2-published June 23, 2035**_

In the old days, before the arrival of tiberium, some divided Africa in accordance with its religion-predominantly Muslim, with a patchwork of Christianity. If one takes the religious angle with Nod and GDI, then not much has changed, how one ideology was far more widespread than the other. Niger was one such example. Hundreds, if not thousands had died in the fighting that plagued the area in TW2. Even now, in 2035, the signs of the conflict lingered. Pocket marks, ruined structures, graffiti praising the Brotherhood and chastising the "infidels…" Oh, and always, there was tiberium. It had taken Central Africa and everything east of Zinder. If GDI had learnt anything from the Rio Insurrection, it was clear that it wasn't being applied here. Even the Steel Talons admitted it.

What was also admitted of course was that there was a general consensus that Africa would be left to tiberium and if it actually still existed, the Brotherhood. Temperate continents, such as this one and South America, were too vulnerable to contamination, especially when compared to the likes of North America and Western Europe. But the guy I was riding with did have more to say-poverty was the real enemy rather than faith, whether it be in GDI's ability to save humanity or the Brotherhood's message of tiberium's divinity. Water was contaminated, polio was making a return and there was nothing GDI could or would do to reverse the situation. We both agreed that it was more a case of "would" rather than "could." Even in areas where tiberium had yet to reach the country, farmland was left deserted and fallow, abandoned to the elements. It was such neglect that allowed native vegetation to reclaim it. I found this disheartening-in a world where food was rationed, and animal and plant species were threatened with extinction, we had fertile land ready to use and weren't taking advantage of it.

Maybe it was because GDI High Command was on the _Philadelphia_…separated from the world the space station orbited.

There wasn't much activity as we passed from Niger into Nigeria (or what were supposedly these states-I say again, the concept has little meaning now), headed for the latter's coast and transport to the Atlantic. The Steel Talons would be conducting operations in South America, while I would be free to make my own way out of the continent. A continent that seemed increasingly deserted. Apart from a few Orcas in the sky and old Humvees on the ground, I didn't see much, if any signs of human habitation.

Even in the world's arse, there were plenty of routes I could have chosen. I'd crossed into Western Egypt to report on the post-war situation, but the concept seemed distant now. I felt I was onto something bigger, namely the fate of an entire continent. I wanted to know if there was any hope for it, assuming that GDI indeed represented that hope. It didn't take long for me to choose my next destination.

Even holding a dog by the end of its chain, one can still maintain their grip. Let go of the chain completely however, and there is no guarantee that grip will be restored…

* * *

_**InOps Analysis**_

_**Source: Classified**_

_Frank's information is nothing new here in regards to the Central African situation. The nature of the information itself will no doubt cause a degree of backlash, but not only would this be breaching the 1995 Terms of Agreement under the UN Charter, but would play into the Brotherhood's hands. It's one thing for them to post slander against GDI. It's another when said slander actually has some basis to it._

_One thing to note is the Niger/Nigeria reference, that the boundaries of the world are indeed breaking down. A good thing in some people's minds, if not for the fact that this lack of barriers is being spurred by tiberium, but that instead of multiple nations and states at each other's throats, we have two super-powers instead. Granted, Nod's strength has been significantly reduced and will hopefully remain so, but…well, in light of suggestions of unilaterally redrawing the political map, dividing the world into red, yellow and blue zones…will we be saving our society's sense of unity? Or will we be destroying it?_


	3. South Africa

_All things must flow from their own dynamic._

Jan Amos Comenius

* * *

**Orbis Unum**

**Section 3: South Africa**

_**W3N Weekly**_

_**Author: William Frank**_

_**Part 3-published June 30, 2035**_

The closer one moves towards the poles, the lesser the extent of tiberium contamination. It therefore shouldn't come as a surprise that South Africa was the country least affected by the green crystal on the continent, but was also the site of GDI African Command (AFRICOM). Situated in Cape Town, it was where I was headed for. Thankfully by plane over the South Atlantic Ocean-quicker than land, and much safer.I was seated beside another newbie journalist, Cassandra Blair, who intended for her magnum opus to be the situation in the country, specifically its jails. Crime and poverty had been marked issues in South Africa, even despite its status as an emerging more economically developed country (MEDC). I didn't really agree to tag along per se, but it certainly got me interested.

Upon clearing security (a process that only took about three hours), I headed for a jail that had been converted for Nod POWs. It wasn't something GDI widely advertised. The Brotherhood was supposedly dismantled and even if it wasn't, it was officially a "terrorist" organization. In essence, no exchange of prisoners or formal dealing. It seemed like a ridiculous notion, especially since the result was overcrowded prisons like the one I found myself observing.

I wasn't allowed to interact with the prisoners, but did strike up a conversation with a kid who looked even younger than I was-a corporal apparently. He spoke with the usual clichés, how tiberium was the destiny of humanity and all that, but apart from that, he was perfectly likeable. He hoped to be a doctor, and would pour over the few books that the jailers allowed him to get his hands on-fear of devising bio-weapons from a microbiology textbook for those entering secondary school or something. I didn't get further than that until a felt a jailor's hand on my shoulder and heard the words "no talking with P.O.W.s, but it didn't matter. The boy's fate was sealed. I couldn't do anything to change it.

At this time of writing, in a dingy motel in Cape Town with barred windows, a stuttering fan and a feeling of isolation, I remember the north of the continent. People flooding into Europe across the Mediterranean…or what's left of it. It's a journey that's practically suicide, but when robbed of all other options, it's a chance many are willing to take. Maybe that's why the boy joined the Brotherhood-robbed of other options, of the chance to follow his dreams. I don't know. All I know is that this continent is being left to the wolves. And that those wolves may come around to bite us as well. That this is one world...and what happens on one continent will affect the rest of our planet...

* * *

_**InOps Analysis**_

_**Source: Classified**_

_Again, nothing new to report, apart from stating the obvious. We're shuffling off people all over the world to live in confined areas. We're drawing lines when they don't have to be drawn yet. I know what orbis unum means-one world. It is something that we may be forgetting as the world's boundaries are changed. This world is our home. And a house divided cannot stand._

_A/N_

_Well, that's that done. What started as a oneshot expanded into a multi-chapter, albiet a short one. Not much else to say, bar shameless plugging. At this point in time, there's no other _Command and Conquer _fics on my to-write list, though with the series being taken over by Victory Games, that's fine by me. Just as long as we don't have another _Tiberian Twilight _on our hands..._


End file.
